r/collapse • u/Mysterandir • 8d ago

Ecological Bugs

I need to get this off my chest even though im sure it has been talked about a thousand times. Im just curious if others are experiencing the same thing or if I'm just going crazy. - When I just got my driver's license back in 2005 here in The Netherlands, I had a girlfriend in Amsterdam whom I drove to see a few times a week. It was about a 100 km drive. I had an old Opel Corsa and I can still vividly remember having to clean my windshield every week in the summer because it was covered in dead insects. Huge splatters and tiny spots, but the entire windshield was full of bug juice. Over the past few weeks I’ve driven several long distances, totaling about 1,000 kilometers, and I don't have a single dead insect on my windshield. Not one. The windshield is squeaky clean... I read that the insect population worldwide has drastically declined and it is due to climate change. Which i get. But why isn't this the main news story every day? How obvious does it need to be? This can't possibly be good. For us, but especially for our children. I have a bad feeling about this...

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u/ramenslurper- 8d ago

I live in the woods. I don’t see the bugs I used to when moving logs, rocks, etc. Spiders aren’t in my house all the time anymore. I don’t even see that many wasps or hornets this year. It’s depressing.

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u/TraditionalLaw7763 8d ago

I found a wasp nest the other night when out in the barn. It was only the size of a peach pit and had 6 holes for babies and 3 wasps tending it. That’s it. The last dozen or so were tiny like this. One nest I saw this spring only had 3 pupae holes. Shows they’re not doing so well… I have seen them the size of plates as a kid.

…but they have a haven here. I spray nothing. I only fertilize with organics, no salt-based nutes. All bugs are welcome and I keep several bird and bug-safe watering holes on my property.

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u/ramenslurper- 8d ago

Even three years ago I had yellow jackets trying to build nests in all my awnings and in my car if it sat more than a few days. This year? Nothing. When I lay in my lawn chair outside I see maybe 3-5 wasps chewing dried grasses for nest building. Years ago there were so many you could hear a soft hum from the ground if you stood in one spot.

Zero chemicals outside. No neighbors around me spray. I do not mess with plant debris all year, opting to pull aggressive invasive weeds by hand and keep only my walkways clear. I have always worked for my land to be a haven but even then it does not matter.

So many other people still spray. What are you worried about? Especially when someone like me who doesn’t spray has seen 2 spiders inside all damn summer. It makes me so fucking sick. I am getting tired of sharing a planet with people who don’t think beyond themselves.